Foreign agents. Blood money. War crimes. Stark allegations on each of these topics have peppered discussions about a Cincinnati-area 2008 election-related spat between incumbent Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) and independent challenger David Krikorian, who garnered 18 percent of the vote in the three-way race.

In the final stretch of the campaign, Krikorian claimed Schmidt had taken money from Turkish interests in return for political favors — such as her opposition to a congressional resolution condemning Turkey for genocide of Armenians during World War I (a charge that Turkey officially disputes).

Specifically, Krikorian’s campaign literature stated Schmidt had received “$30,000 in blood money from Turkish sponsored political action committees to deny the slaughter of 1.5 million Armenian men, women and children by the Ottoman Turkish government during World War I.”

After the election, Schmidt filed a “false claims” lawsuit against Krikorian, who is Armenian-American, before the Ohio Election Commission. Last week, the commission heard roughly 13 hours of testimony over two days and decided to reprimand Krikorian for false statements — although it avoided a debate over genocide or blood money.

Schmidt doesn’t deny taking money from Turkish-American political action committees. Over the years, in fact, she has been one of the top recipients of such money, the Center for Responsive Politics has found.

Since 2007, Schmidt has accepted $12,650 from the Turkish Coalition USA PAC and another $5,800 from the Turkish American Heritage PAC. Overall, these two organizations have given federal candidates $187,555 since 2007, which means contributions to Schmidt account for roughly 10 percent of all their donations.

During the first six months of 2009, contributions from Turkish-American PACs further accounted for 10 percent of Schmidt’s $69,200 overall haul from all political action committees.

Luke Rosiak at the Sunlight Foundation has also noted that four individuals who gave to Turkish-American PACs also donated a combined $8,700 directly to Schmidt’s campaign. These individuals include Yalcin Ayasli, an entrepreneur who founded Hittite Microwave, which sells electronics to the U.S. and Turkish militaries, plus two of his children, and Kaya Boztepe, president of the Federation of Turkish American Associations. The Turkish Coalition USA PAC additionally held several fundraisers for Schmidt, raising thousands more.

Schmidt also took a $10,000 trip to Turkey earlier this year, sponsored by the Turkish Coalition of America. Moreover, the Turkish American Legal Defense Fund provided her legal counsel for the suit before the Ohio Election Commission.

Krikorian alleges that in return for their financial support, Schmidt opposed congressional efforts to condemn as genocide the mass killing and deportation of Armenians by the Ottoman Empire during World War I.

Two years ago, despite vocal opposition from the Bush administration and government of Turkey, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs passed such a measure, but the entire chamber never voted on it. The Sunlight Foundation’s Rosiak further notes that “lobbyists for the government of Turkey, including former congressmen Bob Livingston, made more than 2,260contacts with officials in an unparalleled push to quash a resolution in Congress that would deem the events genocide.”

During the panel’s hearings, Krikorian rolled out sworn testimony from FBI whistleblower Sibel Edmonds. Edmonds joined the FBI as a contract translator after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, but was fired in 2002 for alleging that one of her colleagues helped cover up security breaches and illegal activities involving foreign nationals, including Turkish agents. She has since been bound by a gag order as the government claims state secrets privileges against open discussions of events surrounding her case.

According to her deposition, available via Brad Blog, Edmonds says of Schmidt and her activities with Turkish-aligned groups: “I don’t know anything about this lady, but it fits the modus operandi of all the others who were on the payroll one way or another.”

Nonetheless, the election panel opted to avoid questions about the validity of the genocide label and the “blood money” accusation.

Instead, they remained focused on the narrow issue of whether the Turkish government had “sponsored” any of these PACs or contributions. It would be a violation of federal election law for foreign nationals to contribute to congressional campaigns.

And the panel remained unconvinced by Krikorian’s case that the contributions from Turkish-American individuals and PACs represented laundered donations from Turkey’s government or Turkish nationals. They ultimately voted last week to issue a reprimand against Krikorian.

This will be drafted as a disposition letter in the coming weeks.

The commission also voted against recommending the case for criminal prosecution.

During the hearing, Schmidt’s attorney Donald Brey said, “Freedom of speech does not mean a license to lie.” And her chief of staff, Barry Bennett, welcomed the ruling. Bennett told the Cincinnati Enquirer, “We’re incredibly gratified she won. I think this is the end of the road for him I hope.”

Krikorian has 15 days to appeal the decision of the commission after it releases the letter later this month. He is also mounting a rematch against Schmidt as a Democrat this cycle. As of June 30, Krikorian had raised $53,500 and Schmidt had raised $285,500.

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